Archive for February, 2010

My trainers are starting to look a bit tatty with all this training, at 85 quid a pop though I wont be replacing them before the big day! Usual route today, down to the blustery beach and back again. Still a few aches and pains from Sunday’s big run so my pace was a bit slow, 25 minutes 50 all in. This including waiting at a couple of pedestrian crossings! Nothing really happened, a few folk walked in front of me, it rained a bit and I got a cold head due to forgetting my hat. The Nike + music accompanied my run again, really liking it but just need to find a few more fast paced tracks to add to my ipod. That’s about it really, no readers = no effort to entertain you = no entertaining posts = no readers. Its a vicious circle!

Good god I’m sore! I did my longest run of the training schedule yesterday (looking at the schedule I’ll be using that line a lot!) which saw me run 11.27 miles in 1 hour 45 minutes and 27 seconds. I just did a couple of loops out around the country roads round here, after lap 1 I was within spitting distance of my house. It took a lot of willpower not to just give up and run home and relax. Instead I soldiered on and managed to run the entire distance. Since it was Valentine’s Day I took a detour down Lovers Lane but didn’t see any loving going on. My wife and I had a kid free night on Saturday night so went out for a few drinks and then got a curry on the way home. I couldn’t help but notice when I took it off that my sweat ladled tshirt had a distinctly curry smell to it. It was honking with a manly sweat aroma but coupled with the curry sweat, this really was a smell to savour. The wife didn’t agree!

I ache now though, my knees feel like they might break (although my dicky knee has held up well and isnt really sore), my thighs object (not literally) at every stair I have to go up and both Achilles hurt with every step I take. I really can’t wait to see what sort of state I’ll be in after the marathon, I might look into wheelchair hire though.

These Nike + running playlists are a bit shit it has to be said. The De La Soul one was awful, the LCD Soundsystem one had a couple of decent tracks but mostly it was just noise! Time to put The Best of Girls Aloud back onto the ipod.

Oh I weighed myself on Sunday morning and couldn’t believe it when the scales said 14 stone 6, so I weighed myself again this morning and I was bang on 14 stone. Stupid scales.

At last, a milestone in my training program has passed, I can now claim to be able to run 10 miles without stopping! Cracking day for a run on Sunday and I even had a running partner, the conversation was a bit sparse due to the distance involved but we started out in St Andrews, ran along past the Old Course and along the hilly road homewards. The weather was pretty much perfect, overcast and not at all windy, well if you excuse my beer farts!

I’d spent the day before in the beautiful! town of Kirkcaldy, beers, a rubbish game of football and chicken pakoras at midnight maybe isn’t the best preparation before a big race but I soldiered on, like a true athlete would!

I started this blog entry on Sunday and have only got round to posting it, I apologise for its vagueness and what not, but I’m off out for another run soon so better get it posted!

So usually my runs are duller than chess, but today it was quite exciting really. I almost got run over twice (by the same lorry), I passed 3 other runners (no they weren’t going the other way) and my watch reset itself halfway round the run (bloody annoying).

So there I was trudging along the quayside minding my own business when a lorry driver decided that a stop sign didn’t apply to him, if I didn’t sprint and get out the way quick snap I’d have been pretty flat by now. Of course I voiced my displeasure at him, but he was foreign and didn’t seem to notice. I continued my run and the lorry slowly drove past me, I got to another road crossing before him and started to cross over. At this point he had stopped, clueless as to where to go so he decided to turn into the road I was crossing. Another sprint and some gesticulation this time, bloody idiot! I soon got into my rhythm again and was bombing along the beachfront and I passed not one, not two but three other runners. It felt good, eat my dust slow coaches! Then I decided to see how long I’d been running for, 0:00:00. Brilliant.

The run felt good, my knee help up well and the pace was, I think, pretty fast. The only downside (aside from almost dying) was the fact my head was a big sweaty mess. I need a woolly hat to stop the sweat getting in my eyes but its getting warmer now so I may need to invest in a *gulp* head band of sorts. Watch this space.

Music wise, I got a hold of A-Trak’s “Running Man: Nike + Original Run”. Its a 45 minute compilation of upbeat techno and hip-hop designed especially to help you keep your pace up. It seemed to work, there are others available including one by De La Soul and another by LCD Soundsystem, I may need to get them too. Watch this space too.